


The Effects of You and Me

by decepticonsalem



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Several of them, Brainstorm will die before he admits that he was wrong, Canon-Typical Violence, Dimension Travel, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Multiverse Shenanigans, Mutual Pining, Perceptor is just tired, Slow Burn, Tags will change as I update, the fact that you're fucking starscream in an alternate universe, they're both gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 00:43:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18954457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decepticonsalem/pseuds/decepticonsalem
Summary: When a strange rift opens up in the science lab, the lost light's resident scientists end up on a quest through the multiverse to try and find their way back to where they should be. Too bad Brainstorm won't admit his feelings while they do.





	The Effects of You and Me

**Author's Note:**

> Oh Boy this is the longest thing I have ever written before and I am writing it ENTIRELY out of order. 
> 
> So count your blessings that chapter one is here I guess lmao
> 
> This is only the second thing i've tried writing in the past 6 years so thank you for putting up with my rusty writing skills. This thing is gonna get campy and maybe a little bit angsty because That's All I Can Write.

_—The Effects of Clearly Ignoring Whatever Perceptor is Complaining About by Writing Whatever Comes to my Mind Instead of Listening to Him._

_A research experiment by Brainstorm—_

 

“The state of the lab is unacceptable. You need to find a safer way to test your more volatile experiments or I’m going to-”

Brainstorm easily tuned Perceptor out. This wasn’t the first time Perceptor had come into the lab, forgot his original purpose, and started up one rant or another about the state of the room. Instead of focusing on _today’s_ reason for a safety violation, Brainstorm was focusing all his attention on typing on a mostly blank datapad in his servos.

 

_—So let’s say some MTO is chatting you up at a bar. He tells you how one time he built a time machine. Nothing fancy, just a little everyday thing. He used this time machine to go back about four million years to save someone he cared about. How? He shoots Megatron. Megatron, due to being completely and undeniably dead now due to being shot, never made it to starting the war - and so the MTO abruptly ceases to exist.—_

 

Both his greatest achievement and his worst failure. They were somehow the same thing. Brainstorm sighed, propping his elbows on the desk. Almost a year had passed and he still didn’t know how to feel about any of it. Happy that he’d managed to do what he’d set out to do? Upset he’d failed at the one thing he _should have_ been able to do? Relieved to be back on the Lost Light safe? Depressed that he returned at all? Any or all of the above was his vote. It had gone according to plan, and yet somehow still went completely sideways there at the end. He’d both planned everything to the last detail and hadn’t planned anything at all, when it came down to it. He made himself a mental note to get better at improvising under stress.

 

_—The universe has a sense of humor, though, so this act of idiotic self sacrificing suicide made it so that the MTO never existed to travel back in time in the first place. This means that Megatron was never shot, so he started the war and built the MTOs necessary to fight said war. One of these MTOs would eventually build a time machine, shoot Megatron, and kick-start the entire chain of events that led to this self-perpetuating time paradox, etcetera etcetera. “In fact,” says the MTO, playing with the curly straw in his drink, “I’m probably not even here talking to you at all.”_

_Is he right?—_

 

“-supposed to be supervising you, but you are not a sparkling and I expect you to _act like it_ sometimes. There is a certain expectation you are being held to as a scientist on this ship and-”

 

_— Let’s back up a little and start somewhere more solid, something simple. Like the Multiverse theory._

_According to the Multiverse Theory, you, in an infinite number of universes right now, could be fragging Starscream. Every choice the you that’s reading this has ever made has hopefully managed to not lead you down the path to finding yourself in bed with a maniac. But, for every decision you’ve made, no matter how small, the universe has split itself into different paths. The moment you make a choice, another version of you in a different universe goes a different way. Every decision you’ve ever made has happened at that same moment in an infinite number of other universes, with some of you making one choice, and some of you making another._

_Or maybe the choice was made for you before you even existed. Maybe Nova Prime went to a nice cafe on a break one long lost day, and that set off the chain of events that led to you, where you are right now, reading this. It‘s possible that if he’d gone to a bar instead, you wouldn’t be sitting here at all. Instead, you (or someone close enough to you it might as well be you) would be knees-up in some sturdy Vosian berth, taking it like a champ from a Decepticon in a crown. There’s even an infinite number of universes where he’s decided to remove the crown.—_

 

“-kind of reckless behavior might have been acceptable on Kimia, but I will not let you continue to create mechanisms that could be a threat to yourself let alone the entire crew-”

 

_—There is, of course, an infinite number of universes out there where this is not happening, but mathematically speaking infinity and infinity are the same thing. You can’t have more of an infinity where a thing is happening than you can of the infinity where that thing is not happening. So if you could figure out how to step through the thin wall separating this universe’s version of you from some other universe’s version of you, odds are fifty-fifty you’d find yourself on the receiving end of Starscream’s glorious Decepticon spike._

_And in an infinite number of universes out there, you shoot Megatron, stop existing, subsequently don’t shoot Megatron since you don’t exist, which causes the war to start and then suddenly you to exist again, and so on so forth. This time paradox has successfully doubled your infinities and also has the habit of making your processor overheat if you think about it too hard.—_

 

“Brainstorm, this is a serious matter. Are you even listening to anything I’m saying?”

 

_—Now, taking these infinities into consideration, how many infinities could have turned out how the one you’re sitting in now? The answer is naturally “Infinite”, but if you compare that infinity to the other ones floating around, it’s more like “Just This One” You’re most likely the only infinity that has done everything exactly how you’ve done it, and that’s both humbling and the biggest ego boost you can—_

 

Brainstorm’s concentration on the datapad in front of him was abruptly cut off by Perceptor slamming his hands down on the table in front of him, dangerously jostling a nearby experiment and making the teal mech jump in his chair. The edges of the datapad dented under his tight knuckled grip.

“Primus help me, I can’t believe you! I refuse to work like this any longer!”

The red bot stormed out of the shared lab space with a fury that would have cowed a weaker mech. Brainstorm, however, just let out the breath he gasped in when Perceptor startled him and smiled behind his mask. Working his lab partner into a fury wasn’t something new to him.

 _-Plus,-_  Pressured the voice in the back of his head. - _Perceptor was cute when he was flustered.-_

Right, squashing _that_ thought. Perceptor’s patience had lasted about half a minute longer before he stormed out than the last time Brainstorm ran this ‘experiment’. He was going to have start trying harder in the future, or Perceptor was going to get used to it.

He stretched his arms up and sighed as he glanced around. Perceptor was right - the lab was a disaster. Half of the back wall and half of his own frame were blackened with soot, a rack of glass beakers had tipped over and were now scattered on the floor, the multi-dimensional projector camera Brainstorm had been working on before it exploded in his servos was likely unsalvageable and had left a weird spot of light that seemed to just float by the wall ( _Which,_ he noted, _was kind of cool_ ), data pads and other files littered the floor like confetti, and the whole room smelled like burning plastic.

“It’s looked _worse_ ,” he said to the empty room. “Hardly worth a lecture.”

He placed the datapad back on a clear portion of the table, sliding out of his chair to start cleaning up the mess of glass and shrapnel littering the floor. He could hardly take three steps without stepping on something. Shuffling his feet to try and avoid doing damage to himself, he cleared a path to the storage closet to grab the broom and a dustpan. The soot would take some sort of actual cleaner to get off the walls and a trip to the washracks for himself, but getting the floor cleared was a main priority if he wanted to do anything without Ratchet getting on his case about having shrapnel stuck in his feet.

He started to clear a patch of glass up when his comm link beeped with a new message, marked urgent. He took a minute to sweep the shards carefully into the waste bin before he checked the notification, considering how long he could actually put off reading the message until he saw that the sender was Ultra Magnus himself. He rolled his optics, but still felt a little jolt of apprehension and worry flash through his processor. he prepared himself for a safety violation citation again, a _best case_ scenario, and opened the message.

_—“Brainstorm,_

_An anonymous source has brought to my attention that you have recently refused to cooperate with your assigned team. This would normally result in a simple warning. However, this is the third time this deca-cycle that issues similar in nature to this one have been brought up to me. In light of this and similar situations concerning your past actions, you will report to my office as soon as possible for a conversation on the importance of cooperating and respecting others who may share your living quarters and/or workplace._

_-Ultra Magnus, Second Officer of the Lost Light”—_

Alright. Worst case scenario. Brainstorm grimaced at the thought of being lectured, dropping a half shattered beaker back onto the floor. Cleaning the lab was going to have to wait because Primus knew Ultra Magnus wasn’t going to.

* * *

 

It took four cycles for Brainstorm to be let out of Magnus’s office. _Four mind numbing cycles_. He tiredly trudged his way towards Swerve’s, in desperate need of a strong drink. Chromedome waved him over from a spot he and Rewind had claimed in the corner.

“Hey, Brainstorm! You look terrible.”

“Wow, _thanks_. I can always count on you to make me feel better.” He took the seat across from his amica, throwing himself over the bulk of the tabletop dramatically.

“Still causing problems, huh?” Nautica walked over from the bar to hand Brainstorm a glass of something very blue and scooted in next to him at the table. “Here, you look like you need this.”

He muttered a thank you, un-clicking his face mask and setting it on the table. Normally he would hesitate if Nautica handed him a drink, knowing her tastes were enough to knock out an army, but he was too tired to contemplate what was in the neon drink in front of him. He expected that the drink would be strong, but was still unprepared for the actual kick of the sweet drink. He immediately choked on it.

“ _Primus_ , Nautica, what the hell is in this thing?”

“It’s today’s special. I think Swerve called it a Spark Splitter. I can go ask him what’s in it if you want.”

“This could kill someone,” He said, taking a bigger drink. It burned less the second time down, sending a pleasant low buzz through his frame.

“So, what did you get in trouble for this time, then, Brainstorm?” needled Rewind. “Wait, no, can I guess? Did you explode the energon dispenser in the break room again? Or, wait, _no_ , one of your weapons went off on accident and hit an innocent bystander in the corridor so _now_ they have to stay the night in the Medbay because they’re speaking in a different language now and you don’t know how to reverse it.”

“Hey, why are you automatically assuming I did something wrong? And why something that specific, wow.” He followed up with a softly murmured “The language gun _does_ sound kind of cool, though.” And was now filed away in his list of 'things to make later' in the back of his processor.

“Because you have that ‘ _I-just-got-out-of-an-HR-meeting-with-Magnus’_ look and the day nobody complains to the commanding officers about something you did is the day that you’ve left the ship.”

“ _Ugh_ , why does this always happen to _me_?” Brainstorm whined, pressing his face into the table piteously.

“It’s because you don’t know when to stop.” said Chromedome.

He glanced at his friend from the corner of his eye “That’s not true, Dome. I know _exactly_ when I should stop, and then I don’t, so I waste four cycles of my life listening to Ultra Magnus lecture me about _‘proper manners’_ and _‘teamwork’_ instead of using that time to get things done.”

Nautica grabbed Brainstorm’s drink. “First piece of advice? Don’t be a jerk all the time. It may be hard for you, but I believe you can do it.” She took a sip of the pilfered drink. “Wow, you were right, this thing _is_ strong. I need one of these.”

He snatched his cup back, glowering at the submarine ineffectively as she waved at Swerve to order herself a drink. “I need this drink a _lot_ more than you do right now. I never want to hear the words ‘organizational objective’ again. I can't _believe_ Perceptor would put me through that.”

Chromedome snorted “Going off the mood he's been in for the better half of the cycle you definitely deserved this one.”

“Oh, so _that’s_ what it was. You know, there are more effective ways to flirt with Perceptor than pissing him off.” Rewind chimed in.

Brainstorm sputtered and choked on his drink. The shock on his face was obvious with the lack of his faceplate and a mix of embarrassment and alarm immediately swept through him, ruining the pleasant buzz from the drink. “Flirting?? I am not flirting with him!”

The three other bots stared at him skeptically.

“Oh Primus i’m _flirting_ with him,” he whispered. He felt mortified. “I’m flirting with him and he probably hates me.”

“Oh, don’t act like that, he doesn’t hate you.” Nautica said, putting a comforting servo on Brainstorm’s wing. “He actually seems to like you when you aren’t purposefully pissing him off.”

“You’re a genius with experimental technology, but wow, you’re stupid when it comes to people,” added Chromedome.

“What do I do?” The panic edging at his processor was making him feel like how he imagined Tailgate felt all the time.

“You could start by apologizing to him.”

“Just like that?” He laughed, forced and graceless. “Just walk up to him and say ‘Hey, sorry I’ve been a real aft lately Percy. It’s because I’m madly in love with you and can only show my affection through harassing you, and apparently I’m in denial about it so my friends have to get me drunk to admit anything.’?”

“Probably leave the last part out, but it’s a good start!” said Rewind.

“First of all, you aren’t drunk yet. Second of all, madly in love, huh?” Chromedome sounded smug.

Embarrassment rose up again, and Brainstorm quickly chugged the rest of his drink, trying not to choke on the strong sweet burn in his intakes. “Oh, too bad. Look at that. I’m definitely drunk now and not in any state to talk to people about things. No one can take anything I say at face value anymore.” He felt like he was going to rattle out of his seat.

Chromedome reached over the table to smack the side of his helm. “Stop being so stubborn for once in your life.”

“Frag, fine, I’ll try apologizing tomorrow.” He rubbed the side of his helm. “I want another drink right now, though, and you’re buying.”

“What? Why am I buying?”

Brainstorm rested his head on the table again. “Because you’re my best friend _and_ my beloved amica and I’m in _distress_ right now.”

Chromedome sighed, waving at Swerve for another round.

* * *

 

Brainstorm’s internal alarm woke him up the next morning with a splitting ache in his processor and a pain in his wing where someone was currently putting a lot of pressure. He tried to shift away unsuccessfully and was met with a grumble from the weight on his wing. He reached over to flick Nautica’s antenna.

“Get off my wing, you’re heavy and I’m done having a drunk crisis now. _Some_ of us have _work_ to do today.” He hoped she wouldn’t move. Sure, his wing was going to hurt all day because Nautica was heavy, but she was a great excuse to put off his responsibilities.

The submarine grumbled but she conceded her warm spot against her amica, rolling over on the berth to hog all of the pillows.

She managed to mumble a half slurred “Ggg’luck dealing with y’r emotions today Stormy.” into the foam pillow she had replaced spooning Brainstorm with.

He smiled, leaning over to press his faceplate against the back of her helm in a mock kiss, throwing the sheet back over her and sliding off of his side of the berth to go and find some energon and something to help his poor overclocked processor.

He grabbed one of his pre-portioned energon cubes that he kept in his habsuite for when he holed up in the lab for days on end, and hesitated in front of the cooler before grabbing a pack of energon gummies as well.

He had a fleeting thought that maybe eating energon gummies with a hangover wouldn’t be a great idea on his tanks but he shrugged it off and popped one into his mouth as he left his room. He didn’t chew on it, just pushed the sweet gummy around with his tongue and sucked on it as he walked down the corridor towards the lab. He stalled outside the door, staring at the control panel.

_-You can do this Brainstorm. It’s just the lab, you’re in here almost every day. So what if Perceptor is also in there? No big deal, it’s his workspace too.-_

His hand hovered inches away from the open button.

_-And if he is, you can apologize to him. “Hey Perce, sorry I was rude, won’t happen again.” Easy as that.-_

He took in a sharp breath and slapped the button. The door slid open with a hiss revealing the still-wrecked lab space he had left yesterday. No Perceptor in sight. He let the breath out, feeling his nerves ebb away as he slid into the room and closed the door behind himself.

The lab still wasn’t clean, since Ultra Magnus so graciously took up the rest of the previous day, but he couldn’t bring himself to focus long enough to try cleaning it off. He did pick up a couple of the miscellaneous data pads and move them to a table, though. _Progress!_

He almost jumped out of his plating when Perceptor finally entered the lab, all of his nerves coming flooding back in.

“Hey, Percy! It’s about time you showed up.” He said, way too emphatically. He swore internally at himself.

The other scientist visibly stiffened, eyeing Brainstorm skeptically through narrowed optics. Brainstorm’s spark felt like it was going to jump out of its casing at the look he was getting.

“What did you do this time?”

“What? No! I didn’t do anything this time! I…” he sighed, looking down at his feet, shame and trepidation flooding through him in equal measure. “This is stupid and it’s hard for me to admit this, but, I’m sorry?”

_Great. That sounded sincere._

Perceptor looked shocked and it surprised Brainstorm more than it should have. Had he ever apologized to Perceptor for something like this before? He didn’t know and he didn’t give him a chance to answer before he continued.

“I shouldn’t have ignored what you had to say yesterday.” He was silent for a beat. “And Primus _please_ i'll hear you out now if it means I don't have to sit through another Ultra Magnus lecture again. He wanted to quiz me on _terms and definitions_ but Rodimus showed up and spared me that much horror.” his plating flared out and shuddered at the memory. His processor was one of the best there was but an Ultra Magnus quiz would make anyone anxious.

Perceptor stared at him quizzically for a few moments of awkward silence. Brainstorm felt his anxiety spool up higher and higher every klik that went by in silence and he shoved another energon gummy in his mouth to try and hide how nervous he felt. He almost jumped when Perceptor finally spoke.

“I...Thank you for your apology. Are you actually going to listen if I bring up my grievances again?”

“I’ll do my best?” He offered meekly.

Perceptor took a deep breath and let it out, fixing his gaze directly at his lab partner. “Great. First, you have been increasingly reckless with your experiments and the lab lately and that has been concerning to me. Normally the lab is a disaster on a good day, but it has been a particular wreck lately."

Brainstorm wasn’t expecting him to just jump out with it, so he stared dumbly at Perceptor, only half processing the words he was saying and nodding along.

"I have noticed many of the experiments you have been working on lately have ended on a particularly disastrous note. If you need someone to look over schematics when you finish with them so that you don’t cause so many unnecessary explosions, you should just _ask me_ and I will be happy to peer review your work.”

The idea of Perceptor helping him with his experiments made Brainstorm’s spark jump up into his intake and he quickly tried to look anywhere but into the microscopes optics before he started to blush. His attention was easily caught by the shimmering light hanging about three meters off of the ground in the back of the room.

_-Oh right, I never looked at that did I?-_

The red microscope was unfortunately easy to tune out as Brainstorm focused on the light. It looked bigger than it had yesterday and almost seemed to pulse.

“Hey do you see that? Did it do that yesterday?” Brainstorm stood up from his seat.

“Really? Are you trying to _distract_ me Brainstorm? You’ve put off listening to what I have to say for long enough, and you may not want to hear it but you need to be more careful.”

The shimmering section of air seemed to spread and Brainstorm took a few steps towards it, past Perceptor.

“No, I’m being serious this time Perce there’s something weird happening just behind your-”

A wave of vertigo stopped Brainstorm in his tracks just feet away from reaching the light, the shimmer suddenly enveloping the room in a sudden flash of light. A wave of force sent the bots flying across the room, followed by a deafening boom before they hit the ground.


End file.
